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Sheila Kuehl’s campaign raises $250,000 in bid for L.A. County seat

Former state legislator Sheila Kuehl has raised $250,114 in her campaign bid for the seat being vacated by Zev Yaroslavsky on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, she announced Wednesday.

Kuehl thanked supporters in an email blast sent Wednesday night. “Thank you to everyone who helped make last month a big success,” Kuehl wrote. “I am truly grateful. We’ve still got a long road ahead of us, but it’s clear the momentum is on our side!”

Kuehl’s campaign email indicated that she sought to raise $250,000 by the end of August.

Kuehl, a former member of the state Senate and Assembly, is seeking to represent the Third County District, an area covering parts of the San Fernando Valley, the Santa Monica Mountains and sections of L.A.’s Westside.

A June 2014 primary is scheduled with the general election to follow in November 2014.

Also running is former Malibu Mayor and City Councilwoman Pamela Conley Ulich. Her campaign didn’t immediately return a call regarding fundraising numbers.

A number of well-known names are also frequently mentioned as possible candidates for the county seat, which is viewed as a desirable political position. Yaroslavsky must vacate the seat because of term limits.

Supporters of one-time Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel have urged her to consider running, Greuel told reporters earlier this year. Additionally, former Santa Monica Councilman Bobby Shriver has said he is weighing a run.

The City Hall rumor mill has pegged City Councilman Paul Krekorian as a possible candidate. At a park playground opening in Sun Valley Thursday, Krekorian declined to comment when asked by a reporter whether he was considering running for the county seat.

Sheila Kuehl is the Diana Nyad of L.A. politics. It’s impossible to not root for a cherubic faced, seventy-two year old, candidate.

OTOH, Kuehl’s tenure in Sacramento laid the legislative path for the legacy spending ills that plague California, to this very day.

Now that social issues are less hot-button-i.e. Kuehl’s advocacy of gender equality and same sex marriage aren’t the same differentiating show stoppers in 2013 that they were in the 1990’s-one should expect, we’ll see Democrats who’re better trained as fiscally responsible advocates for both taxpayers and job creators than one-trick-pony (no pun intended), social liberals.

The VICA debate performance of those 45th district, Assembly candidates, is an exciting blueprint for how younger candidates can balance social liberalism with a more balanced approach in examining regulations, taxes, public unions and the environment. Perhaps Kuehl can prove that new ideas and perspectives aren’t just the domain of the young.